The Moon In June -- It Is So Bright

I've been coming to the lab god-awful late (or, god-awful early, I suppose, depending on how you look at it...) lately. Partially because I currently mostly use shared instruments, and people use them all through the day, and sometimes the only block of time I can get to run four plates is at four AM.

Partially because I've gotten used to the schedule, pushed into it slowly by my friend (and lab-mate) Andre, who keeps this schedule permanently. Because sometimes you have to come in at 2 AM to learn how to use the (very expensive) confocal microscope while drinking (fairly cheap beer) out of the free cups you steal from the cafeteria.

Partially because I keep going to my newest friend's apartment during lab breaks to talk and drink coffee, and those talks keep winding into the night, much later than I'd planning. (but I'm not complaining)

Partially because it's comfortable this way, quiet with no one else around. We all have a shared office space, and this is wonderful (for dicking around, for having random cluster conversations, for eavesdropping, for knowing where everyone is when you need someone to show you how to do a Western blot) and terrible (for doing uninterrupted work, for sometimes doing work at all). At this time of night/day, no one is here. The workspace is cleared out. I can push things off the center of my desk and do quiet calculations, the only sound coming from the clicking of my circa-2001 TI-89 plus graphing calculator.

Partially because I can do whatever I want while I wait -- plan experiments, blog, dick around on Facebook, sing in the cell culture hood. Wear whatever I want. Be whoever I want to be, away from the incessant micromanaging eyes of my incessant micromanaging boss.

Headband courtesy of Etsy -- I own 4 of these and wear one almost every day. Flyaway curls courtesy of the ridiculous heat and humidity we've got going on here right now. Shirt, an old favorite, champion of gay clubs and the summer of 2008, now relegated to working out and late-night lab runs. The perfect shirt, actually -- the sleeves are amazing, and I wish Old Navy would roll out this style again. I would buy one in each color, plus two black and two gray. Barely-visible collar bones courtesy of my two trainers, my workout partner, and 5000 hours logged in spin class. Jeans, the smallest I own, courtesy of some number of years ago and the triumph of fitting in them now. And shoes, totally OSHA unapproved, open-toed and glorious, my newest component of my summer uniform.